(21 August 1929 - 6 July 2016)
The American actor was better known as a leading man in the theatre and for his television work, although he contributed to a number of films too. He was first noticed off-Broadway in Little Mary Sunshine, Rick Besoyan’s 1959 musical with Eileen Brennan. Never reaching Broadway it ran at several off-Broadway houses for over 1000 performances and came to London briefly in 1962 with Patricia Routledge and Terence Cooper. McMartin first hit Broadway in 1961 in The Conquering Hero and later created the role of Oscar opposite Gwen Verdon in Sweet Charity (1966). He appeared in the original production of Sondheim’s Follies (1971) as Benjamin Stone and he also worked with Sondheim on revivals of A Little Night Music (1991), Into the Woods (2002), Passion in concert (2004) and the Sondheim Birthday Concert (2010). As well as other plays and musicals such as Show Boat, High Society, Pleasures and Palaces, The Visit (Kander & Ebb), Grey Gardens, Anything Goes etc, McMartin also appeared in many TV series: As the World Turns, East Side/West Side, Marcus Welby M.D., Frasier, Murder, She Wrote, The Partridge Family, Hawaii Five-O, The Rockford Files, Cannon, Hart to Hart, Falcon Crest, Magnum, P.I., The Golden Girls and Law and Order etc.
McMartin’s first film part was in A Thousand Clowns (1965). He repeated the role of Oscar in Bob Fosse’s film of Sweet Charity (1969) with Shirley MacLaine; he was in All the President’s Men (1976), Alan J. Pakula’s Watergate drama, and also in his Dream Lover (1986); in Brubaker (1980) and Legal Eagles (1986), both with Robert Redford, in Blow Out (1981) with John Travolta, Pennies From Heaven (1981) with Steve Martin, Who’s That Girl (1987) with Madonna, The Dish (2000) with Sam Neill, Kinsey (2004) with Liam Neeson and No Reservations (2007) with Catherine Zeta-Jones. John McMartin’s last appearance was in the Tina Fey TV sitcom Unbreakable Jimmy Schmidt (2015).
MICHAEL DARVELL
